An exhaustive and authoritative investigation into the Christadelphians with links from their own sources as well as insights from former members. Complete examination of their history, organisation, theology, practices, and the challenges they face.

welcome to CHRISTADELPHIAN RESEARCH!!

Site Overview

This site is designed to give comprehensive information about the
Christadelphian church (or ecclesia) and how it operates that is not easily available
elsewhere. It is a collation based upon
personal experience and research as well as deep thought. I believe
it has relevance
for many groups. This includes those considering joining them, existing
Christadelphians and those connected to them by birth, relationship or some other
association. It seeks to recognise both positive aspects as well as many obvious
incongruities and may answer various questions that are asked, but for which satisfactory
answers are not given. It is not designed to be a substitute for
individual research and it is a work in progress.

The Christadelphians are a small religious body who often claim that they are a
restoration of original Christianity and believe they hold the true saving doctrines.
Whilst not limiting the possibility others hold the same beliefs, in reality they
are unique to themselves. Early Christadelphians by contrast were more bold
and claimed that there was no salvation within the pale of other churches.
In practice they originated through the personal Bible studies of a medical doctor,
Dr John Thomas, who lived in America in the mid nineteenth century. He initially
promoted independence of thought and
advocated against creeds, traditions, and religious authorities. He
eventually believed he had recovered the saving truths from scripture and dogmatically
defended and promoted his findings in person and by pen. His initial promotion
of the importance of freedom to explore without sanctions and the right to individually examine scripture
was replaced by a greater requirement of mental conformity from those who had associated
with him to what he believed was the true gospel of the apostles.

A study of the
history of the Christadelphians clearly shows that the movement has been
shaped by both the personality of John Thomas as well as his beliefs. This
is not, however, the basis upon which the community would like to be examined which
would suggest instead its position is established by the independent scriptural
examination of its members. Such a claim however fails to give due weight
to the effect of a
creedal basis in maintaining conformity of thought. This is especially
relevant to the Christadelphians because unlike more orthodox churches their initial
success was based upon advocating the need for
independence of thought rather than any need for the influence of the Holy
Spirit, church authority, or even the role of taught faith.

Since John Thomas was primarily an exegetist or interpreter of scripture throughout
his life it fell to others after his death to set it into a lasting form, which
was accomplished through a very painful process of creed setting and division.
Without this the community would not be around today, because more liberal forms
of organisation have always led to a greater association with mainstream Christianity. It seems allowing independence of thought within the community does not
in fact maintain the Christadelphian positions to those of John Thomas despite his
initial promotion of that. Creed setting, dogmatism and a belief in “protecting
the Truth” have therefore been essential to its preservation and have in essence
created a distinct status quo that in some respects has
cult-like qualities, even though there is no defined leader. As a
community its survival has therefore been predicated on battling doctrinally that
it alone has “the Truth” and which leads to its distinct emphases and focuses.

The movement today is largely in consensus on a set of doctrinal distinctives, although
remnants from the various historical divisions remain and are generally called “fellowships”.
Some of these claim to be more true to the original Christadelphian positions, such
as the Berean Christadelphians and the
Old Paths Christadelphians. Since the movement formed within the
framework of the evolving positions of John Thomas (and his altering views of independence
of thought and church authority) and the movement therefore incorporated diverse
positions in its early days, their claim in practice is a greater conformity to
the views of John Thomas (at the later stage of his life) and Robert Roberts.
Robert Roberts is especially relevant because he believed in his writings John Thomas
had reached the “finality of truth” and the majority of the movement accepted his
leadership in establishing a tightened creedal basis. The smallest of the
matters on which he believed importance rested has generally diminished today giving
some weight to the views of the minority Christadelphian groups that the movement
has changed.

In the early days of the Christadelphian movement the writings of John Thomas were
placed on an
elevated basis (as they still are in some of the smaller groups) and he
stood in a position of accepted intellectual supremacy within the movement.
What he said had power with regards to how the community operated, its beliefs and
what actions it took and his influence was moving the community towards a more creedal
basis when he died. His undoubted intellectual ability was noted by both friends
and critics and that cast a spell over both the movement and adherents that persists
to this day. His friends saw a validation in this, his critics saw a danger
here and a lack of balance in his approach. It can still be heard sometimes
when people will say “John Thomas said this or believed that” as though it answers
a matter, although this is greatly diminished today. A huge emphasis was also
placed on the reading of his works and it was common for “Elpis
Israel” and “Eureka”
classes to be set up to study them. From its inception respect and authority
within the movement has been weighted largely towards intellectual knowledge of
the Bible and the ability to “out prove” others using scripture, rather than perceptions
of Christ-likeness or meditational capacity, although there are signs that some
re-evaluations of its central values are taking place. In practice the early
movement treated him as though he had unique intellectual ability, rather than having
any direct help or guidance by God to explain scripture. Since the community
has been based upon a broad adoption of his views there is a consideration of his
role in pioneers
and prophets. It should be noted that he has not been followed in
every respect. For instance he had views on a
pre-Adamic creation that few Christadelphians have accepted. In addition
his belief that the
return of Christ would be by 1866 and
later extended to 1906 with a seventh millenium starting in 1910 are no longer given credit.

Today the Christadelphian community has evolved into a religious denomination with
its own set of trappings and with many challenges to its future. Paradoxically
the freedom the founder required for himself and advocated as a result is not encouraged
in most of the community. Our site is here to encourage those who visit to independently
evaluate information the community at large would not present but which is necessary
to gain the full picture. It is therefore a site very much concerned with
an original Christadelphian idea. Truth. As we read in the Bible, “The first one to plead his cause seems right, until his
neighbour comes and examines him”. The intent of this site is to present information
to aid in that task.

Site Progression Plan and the Difficulties Involved

The full development of this site will take a lot of thought and time because of
the nature of the community. The difficulty involved here is writing in a
way which is both fair and accurate for existing Christadelphians as well as understandable
to those who are not. For instance the community has its own unique words and use of language. Some of the words that I will
use therefore won’t sit well with some Christadelphians. For instance the
word “church” to describe them and individual congregations. That, though,
is an accurate term to most folk outside and more easily understood than the word
“ecclesia” which is normally used. To explain everything in Christadelphian
terminology would therefore make it overly complex for the outsider, who would need
to first grasp their particular forms of internal logic.

A difficulty too is that words employed by Christadelphians are woven into complex
series of explanations especially when it comes to the Bible. They use a method
of proof quoting that involves jumping around the Bible that has the frequent consequence
of making both prospects and even long-term Christadelphians feel that they both
do not know enough and never in fact can know enough. This is incidentally
an important consideration for prospects who are seeking to understand the religion.
Over time too, like most churches it has developed a system of apologetics that
determines how it answers any questions which are asked, how the Bible is considered
and interpreted and how it deals with those who question any aspects of its operation
or who ask “untaught questions”. Our aim can never be therefore to totally
consider every issue of theology in depth, rather it is to progressively build a
balanced picture of how the community works. We recognise the limitations
of words and therefore in the final analysis it is up to individuals to believe
which perceptions they find the most credible and at best this may be a helpful
tool.

I believe many perceptions that the Christadelphian community extends cannot sustain
investigation and thought. This site aims to deal simply with some of the
most important ones and is an aid to the critical examination that the pursuit of
the truth of matters involves. It does not claim to have all the answers.

In making this investigation it is intended to be a force for good. It is
not intended to misrepresent positions and the dangers both of doing that and also
the difficulties of finding the correct words and descriptions are recognised.
It is hoped that by so doing people will not join whilst being unaware of facts
they need to know, it will help those who have doubts but are unable to clarify
them. It is also hoped that it may spur positive change within the community
and will help those who have either left or been disfellowshipped find ways forward.
Many have had similar thoughts, but find them hard to define. It is hoped
this site will help aid both them and also it is also part of my own personal journey
of clarification and understanding.

To follow the progress of this site with regular checking there is a
NEW STUFF!! section.

Using This Site

This site aims to build a broad outline about the Christadelphians and it encourages
individuals to do their own research and a brief article has been written on
sources of information to help with that. It therefore uses competing
sources of information with varying biases and the different links do not represent
all the editor’s personal beliefs.

Christadelphians would suggest comparing their presented positions to the Bible
using information they produce as a help, but there is an intellectual disadvantage
to this approach by the newcomer as well as in-built assumptions that first need
consideration such as how we regard
the Bible, whether and how it was inspired, its intent and role,
how it is interpreted, the
limits of independence of thought as well as many other things.
It is therefore suggested that a better initial approach may be to investigate them
in a more holistic way and gain a complete overview. In other words it helps
to understand something of the
history of the Christadelphians, how they are structured, what forms of
church authority
are in place and how things work in practice. There is also a huge emphasis
placed on having correct doctrines as the basis of salvation that influences both
the process
of conversion adopted by Christadelphians and also forms a challenge for
those considering
becoming a true believer.

Rather than seek to learn everything on the basis of our own experience it is also
worth considering the experience of those who
leave or who have been
disfellowshipped. Churches by their nature seek to convert to
a position and will be reticent at presenting facts or an image which could counteract
that aim. For them to reconsider or change would involve a personal cost.
Churches in general change very slowly and the Christadelphians are no different.

We also consider whether the Christadelphians are a
cult group and if you are a Christadelphian we are seeking to provide a
venue where you can research concerns without being under pressure to present yourself
as orthodox. You do not have to risk any exclusion or make any decision to
either leave or change how things work. You would be surprised to know how
many people secretly have questions and concerns they don’t dare to raise because
they are aware of the implications. For those who have left it is difficult
to move forward. We have been told to “separate” from the world and we have
been taught to see other Christians as part of an apostasy. Somehow we have
to retain the valuable parts of our experience and move forward with understanding
and this site is designed to help us develop further in understanding. For
these groups I have a
support section and you are welcome to
contact me. A framework has also been put in place for an “Out
of Fellowship Christadelphian Support Guide”.

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Christadelphian Quotes

You lay a great stress upon facts throughout your letters, and are incessant in your demand that I should attend to them. This is good; but facts have to be rightly put together, and then you must have all the facts. I do not think you put the facts rights together, and you leave out some, I am sure.

The Spirit of liberty, based upon the law of faith, is the Spirit of Christ; and this spirit all the Sons of God are privileged to possess, and having it, to breathe. I claim the right of exercising this privilege, as well as my contemporaries; and I require of them that they should do to me as once they loudly required others to do to them…

(written by John Thomas, the founder of the Christadelphians, when he was against creeds in The Apostolic Advocate magazine, August 1836)

I choose to think for myself, to read for myself, and to judge for myself, and be the expounder who he may, whether 'great, good or learned,' in the estimation of 'The Church' or World, I claim the inalienable right of receiving his doctrine only so far as it is sustained by my judgment by Scripture and reason.

Must a man never progress? If he discovers an error in his premises, must he for ever hold to it for the sake of consistency? May such a calamity never befall me! Rather let me change every day, till I get right at last.

(from a letter written by John Thomas in 1848, quoted by Robert Roberts, in Dr. Thomas: His Life and Work)

Do what is right; be valiant for the Truth; teach it without compromise, and all lovers of the Truth will approve you. For all others you need not care a rush!

(from a letter written by John Thomas to Robert Roberts and published in The Christadelphian magazine, February 1866)